Volume 2 #4

Harry Knowles in a new film.

"Edge of 17" and beyond

Austin Cable Access TV (including Lube TV and The Reel Deal)

Parker Posey at the Dobie

Casino el Camino

"Natural Selection" (including seeing David Carradine and Charlie Sexton at the Afterparty)

Cinemaker Co-Op Monthly meeting

Preston Sturges Retrospective at UT

John Christensen is in Linklater's new animated film, among others.

Eno pops up everywhere

Film (News and Views)

Harry Knowles apparently has a part in a new film due in 2000 called "Monkeybone." At one time the film was to be called "Dark City" or something like that.

The film is about a cartoonist who gets stuck in one of his creations. Sounds like "Cool World" to me.

The next film by writer Todd Stephens, whose "Edge of 17" script was a big gay hit of 1999, is "Gypsy 83." It's about "a fat girl obsessed with Stevie Nicks." Perhaps Stephens is too, since both of his films titles reference tunes by the Fleetwood Mac singer.

Wednesday nights, there's this African-American guy who has a TV show on cable access where they talk about movies. It isn't exactly a big time legit film review show, so they play a lot of trailer clips. I think it's called "The Reel Deal" or "The Reel World" or something. This show is so fucking annoying. First, the people on the show with the host consistently fight to get a word in. It's like trying to watch your friends argue about movies except you can't but in to tell them what fucking morons they are.

The "friends" are all African-Americans except for one pip-squeak of a white guy who is basically around because he's the only one who knows how to run the equipment to put together the show, I guess. He isn't even very good at this. Perhaps he performs "other duties" well.

Anyway. The show is so bad. They play clips and then, like morons, leave their mikes on so you can hear them whispering and trying to figure out what the fuck is going on while we're trying to listen to the clip.

The worst was an interview with Luke Wilson. Not only did they talk in the background with their damn mikes on all through the interview, but the "host," who was lucky enough to speak with Mr. Wilson while he was on a press junket for "My Dog Skip," didn't have the faintest idea what to ask the Texas-based film star. It was annoying and stupid. Perhaps they are trying to just do a fun, goofy, stupid, obnoxious, free-for-all of a show for cable access. Perhaps that is why they are on cable access. Perhaps I should just turn the damn stuff off.

After this bombastic debacle was "Lube TV." This show is hosted John Christensen and some guy named Mark. I've met John briefly and talked to him via e-mail a couple times. Perhaps I caught an "off" episode Wednesday night. It was rather dull and weird. John went on and on about Devo after they played the video "It's a Beautiful World." I love the new wave group as much as the next guy but John has elevated fandom of the group to an artform. John also played a rather whacked out music video he created called "Anarchy Disco" and a fake trailer for a film, also set to a Devo song, called "Mongoloid," which I think John made as well. It was a rather unusual show to say the least. I'm not sure what to think of "Lube TV."

I wish she were my valentine!

The Dobie is paying tribute to the greatest indie actress of all time (okay, she's second to Lilli Taylor on my list, but I'm gay)...

Parker Posey!!!!

The House of Yes - Started February 4

Kicking & Screaming - Starts February 11

Waiting for Guffman - Starts February 18

Party Girl - Starts February 25

Thursday night I went out to Casino el Camino with Rich and we talked for hours. It was great. Casino is just the coolest bar. They've even added Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain" to the jukebox. I played ("Mother Whale Eyeless"). I really love the place. It's like "my" bar. Anyway, Rich and I talked a lot about films and other things as well. Rich really listens to me when I talk and that really makes me feel cool. I think that's why I've always been attracted to younger guys. They listen. They make you feel (to invert the context of Bowie) "important and free."

Friday I went and saw "Natural Selection" at the Dobie. Surprisingly David Carradine, who is one of the stars of the film, was there and did a short introduction to the film. That was pretty weird. I sat in the front row, so he was, like, 2 feet away. He seemed to be a little jet-lagged and perhaps he had started partying a little early. He did tell an amusing story. I didn't know he was in town promoting the film. The crowd wasn't overwhelming, but a nice crowd, and he told a story about a premier early in his career, for which he brought a ton of 8x10 glossies to autograph, and only 40 people showed up.

Standing in line while I was waiting to be seated for the film, a guy was handing out flyers about some court case that the MPAA has against DVD software manufacturers. Apparently the MPAA wants only licensed software companies to be able to manufacture DVD software, which would allow the DVD's to be played on computers and other systems. This seems like a great fight for Austin with it's strong cyber industry and film base. There's a lot of money on both sides, so it could go either way. Personally, I could care less how it goes. Either way the consumer is going to pay through the nose. And the technology will be outmoded in 2 or 3 years anyway. http://www.opendvd.org

Also, KLBJ and Channel 8 were hanging around the Dobie while we waited to get in. Guess I shoulda snapped that someone of a "celebrity" nature would be around. I wasn't sure what was up. It was cool to see Carradine though.

After the film, I called Tim The Wonder Horse because we had tickets to the afterparty, courtesy of someone in the band Punchy, and we hooked up. The party was at a place called Ranch 616. It's over by Huts and Katz on west 6th. The place was tiny and not too many people were there to start but it filled up pretty quickly. I went to get a drink and Tim talked to Carradine for a moment. He said he was doing a new film with Roger Corman, so I have to remember to check out the web and see what I can find out about that. We hung out some more and noted that Carradine didn't stay too long. Charlie Sexton, who worked on some of the film's score, eventually showed. This guy is like a chick magnet. With that lantern jaw and gorgeous smile, he was surrounded. All in all, it was like a little slice of Park City right here at home. Except most of the people were actually nice and tolerable.

The invitation said Michael Bowen would be in attendance. He's a lead actor in the film who also played the father of the child genius in "Magnolia." If he was there, I didn't spot him.

Saturday, I was going to go with Tim to get passes for "The Beach" preview but realized I couldn't make the screening. Tim spent all morning trying to get hooked up with Springsteen tickets. So, he didn't go either. We got together in the afternoon and looked at some bad video from our trip to Park City and then went and saw "Sweet and Lowdown."

Sunday, I got up late, goofed around and eventually started playing with my camcorder. I ended up making some cool stuff by shooting the TV screen which shoots the TV screen - etc... (I'm sure there's a technical term for this). It looked really cool. I put some stuff together and dubbed a Robert Miles song on as the soundtrack. I got to thinking, why not take this to the Cinemaker Co-Op meeting later in the night.

At 7, I went to the Cinemaker Co-Op monthly meeting. I got there before anyone else. It was a pretty typical meeting accept that some youngster, who apparently won some sort of National Children's Film Festival arrived mid-meeting and showed us a small, new film he had edited on his new iMac digital camera editing software. The piece was a zombie flick and it was really pretty typical.

Then some guy showed what has to be the most inane and horrid performance art piece I ever saw made into a video. It wasn't just awful, it was Godawful. And it went on forever. I finally had to go get some fresh air in the hall.

I had arrived early and told them that I had a film to show but I never got a chance to show it. I thought that was pretty cruddy. Guess you have to be forceful and dynamic and get up there and just take over and show your shit. I'm not like that really (believe it or not).

Anyway, one thing that was kinda cool. Aaron Valdez brought a "how to" film (probably from the late 60's or 70's) that he had bought. It was called "How to Make Great Films" or something like that. It was basically some pretty okay home movies someone had shot with subtitles on it which had "helpful" hints like, "Be sure and get lots of close-ups" or "Try to keep the camera steady. Use a tripod." It was really quite amusing.

The film had the Blackhawk Films logo at the end. I remember in the 70's we used to "check out" 8mm films from the library, usually old silent shorts by Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang... and watch them. All of these were put out by Blackhawk Films as well. Mom used to set up the projector in the school basement during PTA meetings and such and the kids would all go down there and watch the silent comedies so that the parents and teachers could have their meeting. I'd almost forgotten about that. My mom rocked!

Monday night, I went to the UT free screening of Preston Sturges' "Palm Beach Story." The screening was pretty crowded (free stuff usually is) but that is good for a comedy. A guy got up and did a rather long biographical introduction of Sturges which, in reality, made it very easy to appreciate a lot of subtle things about the film, in particular the female lead character. The film was hilarious and the audience roared with laughter several times. I had never seen this film before and I'm glad I got to see it with an audience. Made prior to the Hayes Code, the film has a lot of that delicious sexual innuendo from the 30's. It was amusing and great. I wonder if that's why I haven't seen it. As a kid, I might have seen the film on TV, except by even 70's standards, it's a little risqué. Some of it might even have had to be cut. Plus the title is so inane. Like many of the films of that era, the title refers to a city (followed by the word "Story" - like "The Philadelphia Story" or "The Chicago Story") which doesn't mean anything by today's standards. It's called "Palm Beach Story" because, apparently, at the time, that was the place people went for a quickie divorce.

Tuesday night, went over to John Christensen's place and met him and Mark Brauner, who does "Lube TV" with him. We were going to talk about my upcoming guest spot on the show and look at some footage that we shot in Park City. I ended staying up way late and watching a lot of John's short films. A few of his friends came over and they all seemed pretty nice. John and I talked and talked. (John was the Assistant Program Director at the '99 Austin Film Festival). John also showed me a new video by the band Punchy which was shot at a roller rink. It was cool.

John is a nice guy too but he is really strange - and I mean that in the best possible way! He's like open, and complex, and interesting. He has great stories about people and Austin films. He is also an actor, in a lot of films and shorts, and has plenty of stuff he is working on and plenty of stuff coming out.

John is in Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and plays a character called "The Social Lubricator." He has a scene with Wiley Wiggins in the film. John is also in a film called "Vacancies" and appears in a scene with Leslie (the bearded drag queen from 6th street) and a couple of chickens. He had some pretty cool stuff to tell about all this too. And John is featured in "Natural Selection." He says Charlie Sexton ended up getting his part and he was relegated to the background. I don't remember seeing Sexton anywhere, so it can't be that big of a deal.

John loves 80's new wave and punk as much as I do and we listened to a lot of Eno after everyone had left. We talked forever about so much stuff. It was really cool. Although I have never met anyone quite like him before, I feel like we are going to be really good friends.

I showed him (and Mark) some of the short films Tim, Rich, Kelly and I have made, some of them kinda bad, and he liked them quite a bit. So I might do a couple of guest shots on the show, maybe show some of the Park City footage, maybe show some of our shorts. I hope so, anyway.

Parties

NYC party?

Ron Athey and Vaginal Davis invite you to G.I.M.P. un-ltd, a monthly soiree mutating music, performance, installation.

Saturday, February 12 - 10:00p-2:00 - $10 At ZEN - 2609 Hyperion Ave. at Griffith Park Blvd. Silverlake

Info-line: (323) 661-4399 or check webpage at Vaginaldavis.com

Well - kiddies - that's a wrap! See ya soon! Lodger2000